


keys to my heart

by softbrio



Series: brio one shots [10]
Category: Good Girls (TV)
Genre: Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff, SO MUCH FLUFF, Soft Rio (Good Girls), idk what else to tag
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-29
Updated: 2021-01-29
Packaged: 2021-03-12 08:41:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,725
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29007717
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/softbrio/pseuds/softbrio
Summary: beth and rio may be getting a little *too* competitive
Relationships: Beth Boland/Rio
Series: brio one shots [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1746697
Comments: 3
Kudos: 39





	keys to my heart

**Author's Note:**

> no joke this idea came to me when i was in my piano class meeting

Beth was hesitant at first when her youngest wanted to start taking piano lessons. First of all, they didn't even have the room, or the money, to have a piano in their house. And then there was the argument with Rio that he could swing it, but Beth didn't want to put that on him. It wasn't a problem, the kids loved him and so did she. So she didn't know why this was making her as hesitant as it was. Still, it didn't stop her from walking into the local Guitar Center on a Saturday morning. 

Beth and Rio trailed behind the four kids running into the store. Maybe it wasn't the best idea to bring all of them, but with Kenny in charge at home, the entire house would have either been flooded or burned down. Rio sensed her anxiety over it, stopping her before they could go through the door. 

"Relax, ma. I told you I got it," he said, hand on her shoulder. Beth took a deep breath, practically leaning into his touch. 

"I know, it's just," she started. Her words were stopped when he gave her look of 'Don't even say it'. "I feel-"

"Nope," Rio interrupted, popping the p. Beth rolled her eyes, continuing to walk towards the building. 

"You're such a child," she told him. Rio let out a chuckle, stuffing his hands in his jacket pocket.

"A child who stole your credit card so you can't secretly pay for this," he said with a smug look. Their world was erupted into chaos again as they walked through the doors, each of the kids trying different instruments. Beth's eye first caught Kenny, who was on his phone sitting behind a drum set. He looked up when he saw her standing in front of him. 

"Mom, please can we get this too?" he pleaded. Just looking at the thing was enough to give Beth a headache, possibly a migraine. 

"No way," she responded, receiving a look of disappointment from the teenager. "Ask your father," she added, and Kenny immediately jumped up to dial Dean's number. She then walked over to where Rio was with Jane and Emma, over near the pianos. Beth even let out a smile when she saw him steer her away from the baby grand pianos. "Make a decision yet?" she asked, running her fingers through her daughter's hair. 

"I like two of them, but I don't know which one looks better!" Jane complained, receiving a comment of annoyance from Danny that they all look the same. Beth looked down at the one beside her, gently pressing the middle C key. Rio walked over next to her, placing a hand on her back. 

"You good?" he asked, looking at her distracted face. She looked back up at him, brushing it off. 

“Yeah, yeah. I’m fine,” she replied, giving him a slight smile. _It’s just the memories,_ she wanted to say. 

_”And then when I play it twice, you start on C,” Beth told her little sister. Of course she was giving her the easiest part to play in the song. God, it was the easiest song to play on piano, period. But it was Heart and Soul, practically a right of passage as a piano player._

_“This one?” Annie asked in reply, pressing down on the key._

_“Octave higher,”_

_”I don’t know what that means!”_

_”Here,” Beth said, moving her arm around Annie, showing her which key to press. Annie then reciprocated the action, pressing the same key to show that she understood._

_“Ready?”_

_”Ready,”_

“How bout this one?” Beth heard Rio ask, snapping her out of her trance. Jane nodded with excitement, and everyone else around her let out a ‘finally’, along with a sigh of relief. 

* * *

Two days later the upright piano was moved into Dean’s old office. Rio had put up an argument saying what if he wanted to make it into his own office. That was until Beth reminded him that she does most of the paperwork for the business. Luckily the kids had been at Dean’s the day that it got moved in, or else the thing probably would have been broken by now. 

Beth rounded the corner to the now former office, staring directly at the instrument in front of her. She barely remembered how to play, but it was kind of like riding a bike. You never completely forget, you just need a refresher. But she was still somehow being pulled towards it. Sitting down on the bench, she lifted the keylid that revealed the keys. 

_C, D, E, F, G, A, B._ Pause. _C._

“Was worried I wasn’t gon’ hear that last note,” Beth jumped at his voice, and Rio chuckled. “Sorry.” 

“I didn’t know you were home,” she told him. 

“Just got in,” he replied, sitting down on the bench next to her. Beth moved over a bit as he put a hand on her leg, moving it up and down lightly. “You okay?”

“I’m fine, I don’t know why you keep asking me,” she replied. Still, Rio wanted to dance around it.

“Nah I just know this all might bring back some, childhood memories,” he whispered at the last two words, and Beth scoffed. 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said, placing her right hand back on the keys. He covered it with his, stopping her from distracting herself. 

“Talk to me, mama,” Rio said, and Beth turned to look at him. She wanted to roll her eyes and just get up, and half of her was really tempted to. But instead she just took a deep breath. 

“It just reminds me of simpler times,” she told him, “when I was a kid and I used to sit down at the piano and just, play anything.”

“So you gonna play somethin’ for me now?” he asked her with a smirk. “Or we could do other things.” 

“Are you actually suggesting that you screw me on a piano?” 

“You said it, not me,” Rio said, holding his hands up in surrender. Beth let out a laugh, silence draining the room afterwards. “Teach me.” 

“What?”

“Teach me something,” he repeated. She rolled her eyes, giving him a confused look.

“I barely remember how to play myself nonetheless teach you,” she replied. 

“If you teach me somethin’, I’ll teach you how to play guitar,” Rio proposed. The sound of him admitting that he plays guitar was enough to make Beth’s head spin. Especially because he’s never mentioned it before. 

“There’s no way you play guitar,” she accused. 

“Electric, but I got an acoustic still,” he explained. “started when I was ten.”

“And if you’re lying?” Beth asked. 

“Then you can screw me on the piano,” Rio said, with a smirk again. She hesitantly put her hand back onto the white keys as he mirrored her actions. 

“This right here,” she said, pointing to the C key, “is C. You can always tell because it’s in between the two sets of black keys. Plus you just, always know.” 

“You’re a horrible teacher,” 

“I _had_ a horrible teacher,” And it was true, her teacher had been pretty bad now that she had come to think about it. “Now you just go in the order of the scale. C,D,E,F,G,A,B,C.” 

“No H?” Rio teasingly asked. 

“Okay, I’m done. Teach yourself,” Beth said, getting up. Rio caught her arm, swinging himself around the bench to pull her between his legs. 

“We’ll see who the better teacher is, yeah?” 

* * *

“First of all, you got it backwards," Rio laughed, watching Beth scramble to get the fretboard to her left hand. 

"I knew that," she replied, "just testing you."

"Sure," Rio said, rolling his eyes. "Now, just put your fingers in this position," he explained, standing behind her and leaning his hand down to show the fingering for a C chord. Beth took her right hand to strum down the guitar, only to hear a restrained chord. 

“I’m not good at this,” she said, and it was surprising that she was actually considering giving up this fast. Rio learned down again, spreading her fingers apart so they were on each individual fret.

“Can’t be in between, you get that plucking sound if you ain’t careful,” he explained to her, “try again.” 

Beth strummed her way down the six string acoustic again, this time getting a semi in tune chord. It didn’t help that Rio didn’t bother to tune each string before hand. She flew her arms up in celebration after hearing the sound. “Not too bad right?” she asked. He stepped back out in front of her.

“A natural,” he replied, watching Beth rub her fingers together after taking them off the strings. “Rough on your fingers when you start,” he explained as she looked up at him. 

“You have to press so hard to make a sound,” she noticed the glow in Rio’s eyes as her brain registered what her sentence sounded like. “Don’t even, I know that look,”

“Come on ma, you make it too easy sometimes,” he teased, sitting down next to her and lifting the guitar off of her lap. 

“Now it’s your turn, play something for me, mister ‘I played electric guitar’,” Beth said. Rio huffed and scrambled for a song to play off the top of his head. 

“I used to write, too,” he told her. 

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah,” he started to pluck the strings in a slow tempo, almost ballad like riff. “Used to play this when Marcus couldn’t fall asleep,” he explained. 

“That’s sweet,” Beth told him. She really loved seeing his soft side come out every once in awhile. It was a nice break from the bad criminal gang leader he was when doing work things. He then started to softly hum along to what he was playing, which really threw Beth off. 

“A singer too?” she teasingly asked. “You can really do it all,”

Rio stopped to turn and look at her, shaking his head. “Just admit that I was the better teacher,” he said, leaning over to her. 

“Never,” she replied, their faces so close that if they went just a centimeter further, they’d be touching. 

“Stubborn,” 

“Okay, Aerosmith,” Beth laughed as he pulled her in for a kiss. Both of their competitive selves thinking they won. 

**Author's Note:**

> this was kinda stupid idk


End file.
